Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

~. en X cz: 0 0 > z e - « > > cz: « Cl > ~ "<:!" 00 en 0 ~ 0 0') :r lL ~ G'<") ~ V ,.0 0 .... U 0 (Above) Johnny O'Mara (2) had a 3-7 outing. (Below left) Rick Johnson went 7-9. while Broc Glover (below right) took second overall. Jeff Ward dominated both motos, leading the U.S. team to victory. Trop-hee des Nations Ward, Glover lead American rout By Gary Van Voorhis VARBERG, SWEDEN, SEPT. 16 Jeff Ward and Broc Glover unleashed a onetwo punch in the nine-nation Troph~e des Nations battle which left the opposition reeling from knockout blows in each moto, Ward's double mota wins comb' ned ith Glover's pair of 1 w .. secon?-place hmshes led the Amencan team to an over- 14 whelming 16 to 61 point vicLOry over the team of host couritry Sweden in the 250cc confrontation. .. KawasakI s \'Yard rebounded hom a case of race Jitters In the prevIOUS week's 500cc MOLOcmss des Nations LO puton a show WhICh was In a class by llSel£. Glover, called In to nde for DavI.d Bailey ~hen It was deten~llned hiS Injured nght wnst wasn t 100 percent, pmved to be Justthe nder for the Job. Glover was mounted on the same Yamaha prOVided by the Swedish importers on which he had won the September 14 Ullevl (Sweden) Supercmss. Honda's Johnny O'Mara and Ricky Johnson of Team Yamaha were victims of starts in both moLOS which left them in the rear of the field. O'Mara bauled back for a third in moto one with Johnson finishing seventh to put the Americans in a commanding points lead in the team championship which counts the best six rides of each team through two mOlOS. O'Mara and Johnson fought thmugh traffic in moLO two LO place eighth and ninth. Hakan Carlclvist, the 1984 500cc World ChampIOn, led the SwedIsh squad to a distant second overall. The Swedes had a disastrous first moto with Conny Carlsson the highest placed finisher at 13th. MOLO two s~w them rebound - led by CarlqVISt'S fourth - to place all four In the top 12 and recoup some glory for the home team. The host country and last year's event winner, the U.S., didn't have to qualify for the starting field. This left an additional 15 teams, the largestever entry for a Trophee des Nations, LO vie for the seven starting spots still open in the Gmup A field. The countries were split into two mOlOS and the LOp seven overall scorers moved into the final with the other eight nations running a single moto on Sunday between the Tmphee pmgram. Denmark topped the Group B final. American team manager Roger De'Coster and Bailey were concerned enough with Bailey's wrist injury for Bailey to contact Glover and tell him he might have LO ride in his place. A£Ler riding one practice session on Thursday, Bailey decided he couldn't ride in LOp form. "I mde one practice session on Thursday," said Bailey, "and my wrist was definitely not 100 percent. We had warned Broc he might have LO take my place and he agreed to if he was needed. If it couldn't have been Broc then I would have ridden. You can't fly somebody over on a day or two notice and expect him to do his best. Broc was here for a Supercross so he was already in tune with the time and the food. I'm very disappointed about not riding, but I feel I made the best decision in not doing so." Glover, who didn't hear of the decision for him LO ride until early Friday morning, was ready to go and spent a good deal of time on the track in Sunday morning's practice session learning the track and practicing starts. His Yamaha was being maintained'by Bailey'S (Honda) mechanic Cliff White. Ward, aboard his Rick Asch-tuned mount, also spent a lot of time on the track and even to the casual observer was right at home. Johnson's track time was cut short by suspension problems while O'Mara was in and out throughout the session. Gary "The Professor" Bailey was on hand as a very interested spectaLOr even if David wasn't riding. "I think we'll win," said Bailey, "but it will be because our riders are beuer. We'll beat them at their own game because the track is wide open and fast which gives the edge to the Eumpeans. It's not at all technical. If you make time in the whoops or twisting turn sections then it evens up on the fa.§t parts of the track." Johnson's mechanic, Cliff Lett, was busy after the practice session with the finishing touches on a hasty rebuild of the left fork leg. "I did as much asl could in the time I had before we had LO impound the bikes," said Lett. There was one hour between the end of practice and when the bikes had to be in the special area used for impound. The I.I-mile Annebergsbanan circuit snaked up and downhill in the scenic countryside of southwestern Sweden. The damp, bmwn dirt was quickly turned into berms in the turns and into vision-stealing spray fmm churning tires on the straights. Rocks of all sizes abounded in the soil. The Americans spaced themselves out evenly on the 36-rider grid with Ward and Glover getting the center of the line starting positions and Johnson and O'Mara starting fmm the edges. Ward, the shortest of the Americans, used a mck to balance with since 'he is used to digging a trench for his rear wheel and that allows him to shift his weight and control the bike easier before the start. On the fall of the gate for moto one, the up and then downhill charge to turn one saw a massive traffic jam in turn one with Ward into the lead over Belgian Georges Jobe less than a third of the way inLO lap one. Glover held down third while O'Mara and Johnson w.ere just o.utside the top 20. Ward immediately began to open up ground while Glover quickly moved into second and Jobe, with a rear tire which was slowly going flat on his works Kawasaki, drifted backwards. Englishman Jem Whatley, aboard a Suzuki, put pressure on Jobe with Italian Michele Rinaldi, the newly crowned 125cc World Champion, holding down fifth on his Suzuki. By the 15-minute mark in the 40minute-plus-two-Iap moto, Ward was holding a commanding 13-second lead over Glover while Glover held 22 seconds on Whatley with works Honda rider and now 500cc World Champion Andre Malherbe up LO fourth over Rinaldi and Jobe. Seventh went to O'Mara while Johnson was about llth. Ward con tinued to cruise effortlessly at the 30-minute mark, holding a gap of nearly 20 seconds on Glover with Whatley, Rinaldi and Malherbe following. At this point, O'Mara began to put pressure, from seventh, on

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